Gingrich wins S.C.; Romney wins Beaufort County

Only 10 days after coming in fourth place in New Hampshire, Newt Gingrich won South Carolina’s “First-in-the-South” primary by a landslide.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, the former speaker of the house maintained a lead with about 40 percent of the votes. Mitt Romney gained about 28 percent of the votes; Rick Santorum got 17 percent and Ron Paul got 13 percent.

Since before 1980, South Carolina has picked the winner of the Republican nomination.

In Jasper County, Gingrich overwhelmingly beat the other top candidates with 46.63 percent of the votes. Romney came in second with about 29 percent.

However, Romney won in Beaufort County with almost 43 percent of the votes. Gingrich won 35.3 percent. The county’s voter turnout was slightly higher this year than in 2008 Republican presidential primary, with 26.6 percent to about 25 percent in 2008.

Scott Marshall, executive director of the Beaufort County Board of Elections and Registration, said he thought the higher turnout had to do with the candidates. However, he said, the county regularly tends to have a higher voter turnout than the state overall.

“It’s not unusual,” he said. “We have a heavy population of retired voters, and people in that demographic tend to vote more often.”

According to the 2010 Census, Beaufort County’s population increased 34 percent in the past decade. Much of the increase can be attributed to the growth of Sun City, a retirement community in Bluffton.

Beaufort County was one of three, with Richland and Charleston counties, to choose Romney over Gingrich.

Speculation from pundits and exit polls from Saturday’s primary suggest Gingrich grabbed the evangelical Christian vote, as well as Tea Party support.

The state primaries are June 26. In accordance to South Carolina election laws, if someone voted in the Republican primary on Saturday, he can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary in June. The general election is Nov. 6.

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